• zcd@lemmy.ca
    44·
    10 months ago

    Definitely considering this one, it looks like Pokémon flavoured Ark. Ark is incredible but also hot garbage and player experience hostile (micro raptors? Ichtheyornis? Pegomastix? The fuck outta here) not to mention the insane bugs that are just completely ignored for years… Something similar from a different studio is pretty appealing

    • DasAlbatross@lemmy.worldEnglish
      34·
      10 months ago

      It’s also totally BotW. Like the whole start of the game is almost a direct rip off of BotW’s intro.

    • Graphy@lemmy.world
      6·
      10 months ago

      Maybe not the game for you if your hatred of ark comes from bugs lol. This game is fun but very jank and buggy which makes arks mechanics look like a masterpiece in comparison and I’m no ark fan.

      • Xanis@lemmy.world
        8·
        10 months ago

        Okay so “very” may be a bit too forceful of a word. There are bugs, though they are fairly mild to medium at worst. The most common ones are pathing issues on base, the rare humanoid enemy getting stuck under ground, and some hitbox-related problems that are easily circumvented. The biggest issue which the devs are aware of is multiplayer save game corruption and they’ve released a guide on backing up saves as a temporary bandaid. In all, this is a rather impressive release and should improve rapidly. MUCH worse games with heavier budgets have been released in the last year alone.

        • Graphy@lemmy.world
          3·
          10 months ago

          I mean the dude literally said he hated ark because of bugs so very is putting it lightly imo. In my two hours I was trying to play my friend and I were constantly crashing, dying to glitched were probably responsible for, and eventually not being able to play anymore because we couldn’t spam past ‘OnCreateSessionComplete Delegate bWasSuccessful == False’.

          • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
            3·
            10 months ago

            My friends and I started playing yesterday, we set up a dedicated server and played for 6 straight hours without a single crash from any of the 4 of us.

            It is buggy, but in a Bethesda kind of way in my experience, it’s not game breaking bugs, it’s weird pathing, some jank animations, but overall it plays extremely well for early access. I was quite impressed as a fan and player of several early access survival/crafting games.

      • QueriesQueried@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4·
        10 months ago

        You’d have a point, if the comparison wasn’t between a decade plus old game and one that released in the last week, as early access. ARK is genuinely one of the single worst experiences to try and get into, and has multi year long bugs that haven’t been touched.

        I haven’t bought Palworld, but you can actually launch the game, and join your friends in a few minutes tops. I have attempted to play with friends on ARK. Repeatedly. I have yet to actually do so, even after self hosting my own server on a couple occasions. IMO, this makes ARK as a title and game to play, completely worthless.

        • Graphy@lemmy.world
          1·
          10 months ago

          I haven’t bought Palworld, but you can actually launch the game, and join your friends in a few minutes tops.

          Um dawg I couldn’t even get into a game with a friend when we tried the other day because of the ‘OnCreateSessionComplete Delegate bWasSuccessful == False’ errors. I’m sure it’ll be fixed in time.

          All im saying is to temper expectations and don’t go into this game expecting a masterpiece. It’s a janky meme game from the two hours ive put into it.

          • QueriesQueried@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            3·
            10 months ago

            Um dawg I couldn’t even get into a game with a friend when we tried the other day because of the ‘OnCreateSessionComplete Delegate bWasSuccessful == False’ errors. I’m sure it’ll be fixed in time.

            Very true, I had heard that one popping up but for the live streams I saw it seemed to go away with time or at random.

            Fair enough to temper expectations, it is after all an early access title. They still seem to be handling things better than the ARK devs is all I was getting at. I literally have not been able to play it once, since purchase, outside of joining random public servers and having a uh… “Rust” ^(cough turboracism cough) type of experience if that makes sense.

      • Sir_Fridge@lemmy.world
        2·
        10 months ago

        Seems friendlier than ark though. Ark will just bug out and remove your favourite creature from existence permanently. Or just kill you and every creature you own by having terribly balancing. I’ve fallen through the world in palworld but it just pops you out at your homebase with your gear and your pals.

  • rhacer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    10 months ago

    I typically don’t download games in preview, but I’ve found quite a bit of depth and cozy fun here. There’s some weirdness and definite room for improvement, but I can recommend it.

    It’s basically Pokemon in a survival world, but both your character and the Pals level up which is interesting, and the tech tree had some significant depth to it

    • Prunebutt@slrpnk.net
      12·
      10 months ago

      Now that you mention it: The monsters kind of feel that way. The lacking art direction supports that feeling, too.

    • HRDS_654@lemmy.world
      9·
      9 months ago

      There are already people claiming this, but I have yet to see any actual proof of claim. Unfortunately the court of public opinion has already started to turn even without actual proof. Got to love a good witch hunt.

      • pirrrrrrrr@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        1·
        9 months ago

        I have yet to see any evidence. Just that the CEO is a crypto/AI enthusiast. Not that it was used in the game.

        It really just looks like someone tried to make a better Pokemon game.

        Not the sort of game that appeals to me, but I’m glad people are having fun.

    • hannes3120@feddit.de
      8·
      10 months ago

      I mean half of them are obvious merges of Pokémon with assets copied one for one in some cases. Really wouldn’t be surprised at all of they used an AI for this

    • a4ng3l@lemmy.world
      23·
      10 months ago

      I’d say too frustrating. And the zelda / pokemon clone fun only gets you so far.

    • Renacles@lemmy.world
      17·
      10 months ago

      It’s really good, they got rid of the tediousness that usually comes from survival games by letting pals take care of the repetitive tasks for you.

      It also has some really fun and dumb ideas.

    • SpaghettiYeti@lemmy.world
      5·
      10 months ago

      Yeah, I’m like 18 hours in. Adjust the settings before you go in to make it be the Zelda/Pokemon/COD clone you prefer and have fun exploring and letting fake pokemon do your work for you. Interesting bits of mysterious storyline so far too.

    • Zauwara@feddit.de
      18·
      10 months ago

      The trailer reminded me of that other game craftopia that really didn’t click with me. Pulled up the trailer for that and wouldn’t you know it, same developer. Craftopia still isn’t out of early access and sits at a comfortable 57% (recent) steam user rating. So I doubt I’ll get palworld.

      • Statick@programming.dev
        6·
        10 months ago

        FWIW, I tried to like Craftopia and it didn’t click, but I’m really enjoying Palworld. If you enjoy Pokemon you should be able to get your money’s worth.

      • verdigris@lemmy.ml
        1·
        9 months ago

        That’s probably because it’s the same devs and appears to be largely a copy of craftopia with Pokemon mechanics swapped in

    • hakobo@lemmy.world
      12·
      10 months ago

      It’s weird. I would say it feels very unpolished, yet at the same time, it works way better than I would have thought for an early access monster collector. It totally feels like a meme, but it’s actually quite fun at the same time. I don’t think I’ll play it forever, but it’s definitely my addiction this week. I only downloaded it because a friend suggested it, it has Pokemon elements, and it’s included in game pass so I had nothing to lose, but I’ve already put probably 15 hours into it this weekend.

      • Donkter@lemmy.world
        3·
        9 months ago

        I keep hearing “pokemon elements” is there actually the move selection, level system and typing strategy that went into Pokemon? Cause as fun as monster collecting is, if the combat lacks depth idk how long the game will last.

        • hakobo@lemmy.world
          1·
          9 months ago

          There is typing weakness and resistance. Each Pal can have 3 moves and you can swap out the moves from whatever they know and you can also teach them moves using move fruits (aka TMs). However you don’t directly control your Pals. It’s real time action based combat. So you are running around shooting and dodging and your active Pal is doing the same all on their own. So no, it’s not a pokemon game, it just has some elements of it in the form of catching, leveling, learning moves, breeding, and having some pals prove utility skills.

          The combat definitely lacks depth, but they have also provided other gameplay elements to offset. Base building is a big one. Your Pals can be assigned to do jobs in your base, and different pals are capable of different tasks. It’s first and foremost a survival game and setting up base automation is a core part of that. Your base occasionally gets raided by wild pals or bad NPCs that you have to fight off.

          I actually agree that I don’t think this game will last long, for me at least. But that’s fine. Not every game needs to be a forever game. For $26 on steam (or included in game pass), I’ve already had enough enjoyment out of it just in the last few days to make up the cost. I mean, that’s pretty much the cost of going to see a movie.

    • CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
      10·
      9 months ago

      Honest opinion: Gameplay mechanics are really interesting, visuals are quite good. If you ever wanted a “pokemon but without keeping it kids friendly” game, this might scratch that itch just fine.

      I didn’t got deep into this game, but it has a noticable lack of direction. The game doesn’t tell you what to do aside from the basic base building; but I like it.

      Oh also, it’s quite buggy in this state and crashed occasionally; so you might want to give it a few more updates before buying if you dislike that.

  • zak@lemmy.l0l.city
    16·
    10 months ago

    I’m very wary of early access, they always change too much and it’s like I own a different game by the time it gets released. IF it gets released.

    • OswaldBuzzbald@midwest.social
      9·
      9 months ago

      It’s funny you mention this because I actually love early access games because I like seeing the game change and evolve over time.

    • poke@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      9 months ago

      I feel like I’ve already gotten my money’s worth with how much I’ve played the current version. If they somehow pull a cubeworld and make it worse, I’m sure the community would love to source an old and good version.

    • testeronious@lemmy.worldOP
      20·
      10 months ago

      should come back to the top after a few days. A few releases are able to become the most played game on steam, it’s a very impressive feat.

  • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
    13·
    10 months ago

    Huh and this isn’t even free and it’s still in early access.

    Also from the steam page: “Don’t worry; there are no labor laws for Pals.” Ew. Not even the fact there are no labour laws, as it is expected from primitive game, but the fact some gross brain decided to specifically mention it as a perk of the game.

    “Build a factory, place a Pal in it, and they’ll keep working as long as they’re fed—until they’re dead, that is.” - no seriously, fuck them.

    • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      8·
      9 months ago

      Jesus Christ I hope you’re vegan. If you’re upset about a silly joke considering the diagetic implications of monster collector/automation games: what we do to beings that have actual feelings should be a real concern for you.

      • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        3·
        9 months ago

        Pokémon spends a lot of time—a silly amount of time, really—explaining how the fighting you’re doing against other trainers isn’t a bad thing, it’s not cruel. It’s more like sport. They like doing it. You bond with them over it. Everyone faints, no one dies. And when you’re fighting Team Rocket, well, that’s just a good cause. Something your Pokémon believe in just as much as you do.

        So the lore goes, anyway. A bit naive, but sincere and earnest. Good values.

        This very funny Palworld description is saying it’s okay to treat them like slaves.

        Like, they might not want to work on your cabin for you, but actually, there is no labor board to stop you from forcing them to. Do you think that keeping slaves is funny? Like, no other context, just: I have slaves, that is funny to me.

        If the writer of this laugh out loud, very funny steam description doesn’t mean it that way, they should change the joke. As a high-school graduate, you should be able to pick up subtext like this. It’s very simple.

        Sorry for the bold, I just wanted to make sure you saw me insulting you.

        Keep in mind, I’ve never played this game: I have no opinions. Are they treated like slaves? Would you care to enlighten us?

        • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          6·
          9 months ago

          Yeah so it doesn’t really matter what the “lore” is. Like if I write a book series with a slave race but I put in a line where a representative of the slave species, let’s call them uhhh mouse-elves, says “oh master we love being slaves!” that doesn’t actually change anything meaningful.

          There is always this disconnect between the fact that in Pokémon, Digimon, SMT, whatever else I’m forgetting for all the “no this is actually good clean fun” (ok smt goes a bit darker but still very sanitised) the creatures exhibit almost 0 agency and at the end of the day mudkip is facing down a moon sized laser beam from a galactic god. Further in the media around at least Pokémon trainers are legitimately worried when their “pets” are overmatched or hurt.

          So as much as they say “oh it’s ok because mc gobbledygook” there is an enormous dissonance between what the audience sees/what the player does and what the media presents it as.

          Also I note you’re not vegan, so it’s utterly bizarre you’re concerned about the imaginary welfare of animated fantasy monsters but not actual earthlings we share the planet with and murder for pleasure.

          also edit: I never graduated highschool, I was a bit busy being abused, I do have a masters and the ruins of a PhD though. I would tentatively suggest you focus your outrage on actual real problems and not kinda lazy filtered through a different culture and language parody of a genre advertising jokes.

          • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            2·
            9 months ago

            mouse-elves, says “oh master we love being slaves!”

            You can just say Harry Potter. I’m not going to defend JK Rowling.

            so it’s utterly bizarre you’re concerned about the imaginary welfare of animated fantasy monsters

            If you’re critical of Pokémon’s lazy handling of its own premise, why are you castigating people for being critical of this one?

            If people are making pro-worker or anti-animal-abuse arguments, and “wow, animal slaves isn’t cool” is certainly one of those, embolden them. What are you doing?

            • naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              3·
              9 months ago

              I don’t even know what your position is anymore. It’s bad for a very tongue in cheek game to make a joke about lack of labour rights for monsters in their advertising, but it’s fine for other monster collectors to just not acknowledged how disquieting the premise is because they explain it away by lore, but when Rowling explains something away by lore it’s not excuseable because lore doesn’t have any material impact on what people are implicitly writing about?

              I think you should probably just learn about the game before having an opinion about it. It is very unserious. It is parody homage, and also just dumb and cute. It’s like getting worked up about mario kart encouraging teen destruction derbies or something. We’re not looking at something like the skeezy line blurring between Hollywood and the usaian MIC as the usaian department of war requires films to adopt pro imperial stances in order to grant access to military hardware which in turn makes movies more visually appealing.

              It’s just a ridiculous little toy going “Monster collectors are very silly hey?” where you can pat the cute mammoth in the spa and also work 100 cats to depression making bombs.

              This doesn’t have any meaningful impact, if you want to improve the world go do a weekend at your nearest animal rescue, volunteer your time teaching your local language to migrants, or promote a Union at your job.

    • Dettweiler@lemm.ee
      45·
      10 months ago

      Devs started making changes that killed a lot of fun to, presumably, appeal more to CoD players. Some of the balancing decisions also made a lot of the guns a bit less exciting to use and made most of them essentially the same thing. The two most popular classes (medic and sniper) have been nerfed to oblivion. It feels like they are trying really hard to curate a very specific experience, and that seems to have burned out a lot of people or driven others away.

      Personally, I think they should have leaned harder in the direction of more realism and rewarding creativity.

      • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
        12·
        10 months ago

        Sniper and Medic are the peak COD classes though. Assault rifles/SMGs with infinite self-heal or sitting somewhere back one-shoting people.

        I felt the game move away more from COD since not everyone is running Medic with Vector. Also Sniper and Medic are still the most popular classes, so they were certainly not nerved into oblivion.

  • Carlos Solís@communities.azkware.netEnglish
    4·
    10 months ago

    For somebody specifically interested in the online competitive format of Pokemon - is there anything of the sort in Palworld? The last game that kind of scratched that itch for me was the Digimon Cybersleuth series.